Glasgow Labour MSP Paul Sweeney dismisses safe drug room claim

Paul Sweeney hit back at a senior UK Government advisor after she argued they were “not the silver bullet” to fix Glasgow and Scotland’s drugs deaths problem. 

Dame Carol Black, who was commissioned by the former Home Secretary Sajid Javid to conduct an independent review into drug misuse, said the row over consumption rooms could potentially act as a distraction from tackling the issue. 

READ MORE: Opinion: Glasgow's drug deaths record should shame us all

Earlier this month, Glasgow moved a step closer to opening the first consumption room in the city despite the UK Government continuing to oppose the idea. 

“The suggestion that there’s ‘no evidence’ of the effectiveness of safe drug consumption rooms is nonsensical hyperbole and flies in the face of numerous international examples in over 90 cities worldwide,” said Mr Sweeney. “They are a tool used to tackle drug deaths across Europe and further afield. Not only do they prevent fatal overdoses, they reduce the prevalence of needle sharing and subsequently decrease related blood borne infectious diseases like HIV or Hepatitis.

“In my time working at the safe drug consumption pilot in Glasgow, we prevented 12 fatal heroin overdoses. 

“That unofficial van operated on a part time basis with volunteers and managed to save twelve lives; imagine the effectiveness of a full time, twenty four hour service that was properly resourced. 

An unofficial drug consumption van has operated in the city

“Whilst it isn’t a panacea, its a vital component in a multifaceted approach to reducing death and related illness with a life lost to drugs every six and a half hours in Scotland on average.

“I’ve seen first hand the trauma caused by the war on drugs, which is really a war on people who use drugs. The stigma and degradation experienced by so many vulnerable adults can be prevented. It should be our collective national mission to ensure not one more life is lost to drugs.”

The latest statistics showed Scotland’s drugs death rate had risen for the seventh consecutive year in a row.

The National Records of Scotland data released on June 30 showed that 1,339 people died from drug misuse last year - the highest annual figure since records began in 1996, and a five per cent rise on the previous year.

The figures give Scotland the unwanted title of the drugs death capital of the UK and Europe, with three and a half times more people dying from drugs in Scotland than in the UK overall.

READ MORE: Glasgow Drug Consumption Room waiting for government 'green light'

Speaking to our sister title, the Herald on Sunday, Dame Black said: “I am probably going to be limited in what I can say as it would require a change in the law, and I was absolutely not allowed to recommend anything that would need a change in the law, but I have never seen… I’ve never seen good research, controlled evidence, of how successful they [drug consumption rooms] are.

Nicola Sturgeon has promised to tackle the drugs death crisis

“What I have always said is I would want to give the local authorities the right to choose the evidence-based treatments, that really are sound in evidence, and then apply them to the population.”